Tag Archives: PCC elections

I haven’t written on the US presidential election yet. The concept of Romney – openly homophobic, opposed to sex education, opposed to any form of government funded health care – actually winning this election terrified me so much that writing about it rationally and objectively is incredibly difficult. But, I do think it is important that we talk about it here. Obama won the election because of the single women’s vote, African Americans’ vote, Hispanic vote, Native American vote, and many other groups. This has been broadcast by every pundit – some claiming it as a victory, a broad mandate, others protesting that few white men voted for Obama.

What people haven’t been talking about, is the youth vote. Both last week, and four years ago, young Americans voted overwhelmingly for Obama. In that election, there was a surprisingly high number of first time voters, people who were inspired to vote, and care about formal politics, for the first time.

Maybe you don’t have, have never had, a candidate like Obama to vote for. But, I don’t want to wait for the politicians to come to me. I know, they should be wooing your votes, our votes, but if they aren’t, all that proves is that we need to force them to listen. Some of you have the right to vote for your police commissioners this Thursday. That’s real, that’s important. Do you complain about being stopped and searched? About being scared to walk through the streets at night, alone? About not being taken seriously, as a young person, when you go to report a crime? This is your chance to tell people what you think about that.

In the 2005 UK general elections, only 37% of the 18-24 year olds who were registered to vote actually showed up on election day[1]. Not counting anyone who simply wasn’t registered to vote. Out of over 7 million people in that age-range, over 4 ½ million young people didn’t manage to vote[2]. Polling data suggests that labour won that election with 40% of the vote, compared to the Conservatives 32%[3]. That election wasn’t even particularly close, and the youth vote could have swung it. Are you hearing me? If we actually voted, we could decide elections.